hi michael, sorry I'm a little manic today and simply can't keep my mouth shut. I think of the playa name as the name you would give yourself if you had the opportunity to pick your own name. I also think names given by others are good, but I was pretty attached to harriet before I ever got involved in bm. Nice poll.

<b>harriet:</b> Harriet the Spy, a novel by Louise Fitzhugh (1964) about an 11-year-old girl who takes frank and copious notes about everyone she encounters. After school she follows her Manhattan spy routes and again writes descriptions of all she sees in her much-treasured and very private notebook. The kids at school notice her note-taking and at the first opportunity take away her notebook and read the often-unflattering thoughts that Harriet has had about them. A bad situation is resolved handily by making Harriet the editor of the school newspaper.

<b>herself:</b> In the book Infinite Jest there is a complicated and tragic character dubbed 'Himself' by his children (all of whom are boys). Fancying myself as the long lost daughter of the notably unhappy family, I took the name Herself for the first time when I was posting on usenet a couple years ago.

Radio pseudonym usage among Burning Man staff is loosely guided by ad-hoc conventions established by Burning Man's Black Rock Rangers. Although, to my knowledge, there are no specific FCC or local regulations regarding choice of a pseudonym for two-way radio communication, it is understood among the BRRs and local law enforcement that on-air obscenity is verbotten. Organizational considerations include choosing a pseudonym of at least one syllable and preferably fewer than four or so, such that it's distinct enough for others to pronounce and doesn't get "chopped" at the beginning of a transmission, and it should preferably be different from one's given name. There's a certain amount of slack with all this, and people who might insist on changing a long-held pseudonym such as "Circus Boy" to something like "El Mano" [sic] are routinely ignored. Somebody this year who went by the name "Fuckstick" had to be reminded to use "F-stick" on the radio.

If you happen to be a social climber on the Burning Man ladder it helps to choose an unambiguous and unembarrassing pseudonym that works well either in email, in print, on the radio and in normal conversation, so try it on your family and friends first, and see if they cringe.

A minor and recent trend has been changing of pseudonyms in the apparent desire to project a positive image, so we had "Psycho" changing to "Phoenix", and to avoid propagating DPW as a gun-toting militia, we had "Shooter" changing to "Stabber".

The reason I went with a pseudonym was simply to follow two-way radio protocol, and with the anticipation that other Bobs may exist, but my campmates had already been calling me BillyBob since college. The whole matter of playa names other than nicknames as anything more than pragmatic (or ironic) choices I leave to the Welcome Home types.

Christ had nothing to do with it… I am a German, Ukrainian, Russian, Scottish Jew. Beside the fact a devil help name me.

Walking on the Esplanade my wife and I started talking to some girl and this guy. I called him spikey because he was wearing horns & I forgot his name. So, he said listen spanky, spunky, and sparky and told us a story.

His name was Mark from magicglasses and the next day he stopped by our camp. In conversation we thanked him for helping us find playa names. He went on to tell us about how he does not like playa names because of a bad experience.

That was a bummer to hear since the names are appropriate for Heather & I. We really loved hearing him say spanky and spunky with a Scottish accent.

Maybe it was the semi-bondage slut outfit I was wearing that night or else he knew I was in for some serious spanking that night and the next.

The ! in spanky! came from the eplaya… we know some guy already had spanky without the ! and I wanted spanky… boo hoo. I changed it to michael to avoid anymore confusion.

I have a playa name, but it is a nickname I had for years before going to BRC & is used extensively in the default world. What does that fall under?

The playa name conversation has been brought up many times before, but never until now in a way that i felt I could really contribute.

I don't have a playa name and I wouldn't really care for one. But some people might consider Ivy to be my playaname in that it is a nickname, of sorts.

People often ask me if it's my real name, to which i answer "yes." I named myself for some of the same reasons harriet took her name but also some similar reasons Badger took his. There are so few people anymore that call me by my "legal" or "given" name, I could probably count tham on one hand. Often my parents even call me Ivy now. Lately I haven't even been answering to my original name. It's odd to hear myself addressed that way.
I consider Ivy my real name and not a nickname or a playa name. I chose it becuase that was who i wanted to be and, ever so slowly I am becoming and will become that person. To take another name, for me, would be to abandon that quest and it would ahve to be upon realization that my beliefs that i aimed for were skewed, which I don't see as happening.

I first went by Ron, my real name, but as our camp grew it became difficult to distinguish Ron from Ron, Ron and Ron. So, because I was the founder of my camp, I became "The Mayor", but that became confusing as well because there are several "Mayors" in BRC. The next year I started gifting out Chai and when people came looking for me they always asked for the "Chai Guy", and so far that one has stuck pretty good.

Well, I'm quite the new guy here, and considering I've not visited the Playa yet, my nickname isn't a "playa name" however, I enjoy having the opportunity to explain my nickname.

"Phydeau" is nothing more than a drawn out phonetical representation of the word "Fido". Most people catch this early on, however, mistake that it's a common american pet's name. In fact, "Fido" is an actual word, defined as; "A coin with a minting error" ... reworded; "Something of slight value that's value is increased due to it's flaws". With the added fact that I collect and create coins, the name suits me well.

Eplayans and people they've introduced me to call me Jezzie. I always introduce myself as Miki, and I'm not actively trying to have a playa name, but getting called a Jezebel on a regular basis is kind of fun.